51吃瓜网

Certain last names seem to dictate career interests.

Such is the case with Victoria Henry Cervantes.

Growing up in New Mexico, Cervantes 鈥渁dored the written word,鈥� keeping a journal and feasting on fiction and poetry. She spent much of her 20s working in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Honduras and Peru as a Fulbright Fellow, literacy teacher, and counselor to teen mothers. She learned to confront with equanimity young people鈥檚 lack of access to literacy education 鈥� especially 鈥渢rauma-informed鈥� literacy education that responds to students鈥� experiences with poverty, racism and other challenges.

It was the discovery that those same gaps are equally severe in the South Bronx that last year brought Cervantes to 51吃瓜网 as a master鈥檚 degree student in the Literacy Specialist program.

鈥淚鈥檇 tell friends about high school students who were just learning to read and write, and they鈥檇 say, 鈥業n the United States?鈥欌�� she recalls. 鈥淏ut these are kids whose educations often have been interrupted by immigration or years spent in refugee camps. It鈥檚 a misunderstood population with unmet academic and emotional needs that can lead to life-long problems, because kids who can鈥檛 read or write often grow up to be exploited. And a lot of teachers are wildly unprepared to teach them, as I was.鈥�

In TC鈥檚 program 鈥� home to the legendary , led by Lucy Calkins, Robinson Professor in Children鈥檚 Literature 鈥� Cervantes found the kind of formalized preparation she was looking for.

鈥淭C taught me foundational skills, such as phonics, but I鈥檝e also learned that being literate is not just about reading, it鈥檚 about communicating via different media and navigating the world,鈥� she says. 鈥淢y awareness of multiple literacies has made me a much better educator because it made me recognize the different assets of each student.鈥�

TC taught me foundational skills, such as phonics, but I鈥檝e also learned that being literate is not just about reading, it鈥檚 about communicating via different media and navigating the world.

鈥擵ictoria Henry Cervantes 

Cervantes calls her student assistantship with the Reading & Writing Project an 鈥渋ncredible opportunity鈥� to polish competency in curriculum management and the integration of literature into classroom environments. As one of TC鈥檚 Arthur Zankel Urban Fellows, she also worked with emergent bilingual learners in high-need schools across the city.

As a result of those two experiences, Cervantes has become interested in staff development and a career 鈥渨orking and supporting whole groups of teachers.鈥� While she鈥檒l always keep a foot in the classroom, she wants to support teachers working in displacement camps with students in crisis.

鈥淚t is incomprehensible for me to think of a life without reading and writing, but that鈥檚 a reality for so many people,鈥� she says. 

Changing that reality is a tall order 鈥� but you get the feeling that this Cervantes won鈥檛 be tilting at windmills.

— Steve Giegerich